Inter Press Service
An agreement signed by the government of Venezuela and the Chinese state-owned company Citic Group for prospecting and mapping the country’s mining reserves is being challenged by both the opposition and experts who argue that it will leave valuable natural resources dangerously exposed.
Oil and Mining Minister Rafael Ramírez said “the mining map will be used to explore, confirm and quantify the country’s mineral resources” and, over the five years in which the agreement will be implemented, some 400 Venezuelan engineers will be trained “to serve as custodians” of the data compiled by the Chinese consortium.
So far the Venezuelan government has said nothing about how the knowledge gathered by China — the world’s largest consumer of raw materials — will influence future mining decisions and whether it will entail benefits or advantages for the Citic Group.
But simultaneously with the prospecting agreement, Citic Group was awarded a concession to operate the group of gold mines Las Cristinas, which has already seen several operators since Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, including the Canadian companies Placer Dome, Vanessa Ventures and Crystallex, and the Russian company Rusoro.